Indigenous Religious Traditions of the World

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CHAPTER OUTLINE

IntroductionCommon Elements of Indigenous ReligiousTraditionsWe Are from the Forest, Earth, and Air: UniversalKnowledgeMaintaining Life and Health through RitualContact, Displacement, Prophecy: IndigenousReligious Traditions over TimeCosmogony: The Primordial Times of CreationCosmology: Space, Time, and the Orderly Structuresof the Universe

Beings and Their RelationshipsCreating the World and the Day: A Baniwa Accountfrom the Northwest Amazon

Study and Discussion QuestionsKey Terms

For Further Reading

Suggested Websites

Notes

Orthodoxy, and other so-called world religiothat were complicit with colonialist expansand its repression of the other peoples (indenous), their rites and beliefs. For centurcolonial societies have denied that indigenpeoples had religions at all; as the great ptographer of Native North American cultuEdward S. Curtis stated, ere seems to bebroadly prevalent idea that the Indians lacka religion. . . . Rather than being withoutreligion, every act of his life was accordindivine prompting.

e difficulties in discussing indigenoreligious traditions also lie in the fact th

Introduction e category indigenous religions of the world merits an encyclopedia all its own. For,as many tribal peoples as there are in the worldtoday, each has its own set of beliefs and ritesthat relate humans and all other living beingsto the ultimate sources of life. Insofar as pos-sible, this chapter will present a tip-of-the-iceberg sort of perspective on the commonconcerns expressed in these traditions. I preferto use the terms indigenous religious traditions and not indigenous religions because the termreligion by itself has a colonial connotation formany indigenous peoples, which reects theirhistorical relations with Christianity, Russian

CHAPTER 1

Indigenous Religious

TraditionsRobin M. Wright


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system of meanings regarding what they believto be the ultimate reality.

Similarly, while scholars can nd relativagreement in meaning among the followersof a single world religion for notions such asoul, the afterlife, the personwith indigenous religious traditions, there is such a diversity of perspectives that, although it is possiblto speak in general terms about some aspects othese notions, there are nevertheless wide variations in the ways each of them is understoodIndigenous religious traditions, in short, arecharacterized byheterodoxy in contrast with theorthodoxy of the world religions. ere is no setof unique features characterizing all indigenou

religious worldviews. For the purpose of understanding some of their similarities and differ-ences with the so-called world religions, we wiexplore the beliefs and practices in a variety oindigenous traditions, but without making anyclaims to universalities.

unlike the world religions, which have a cen-ter of faith, a body of orthodox doctrine (witha multitude of local traditions), a relatively uni-ed politics, a meta-narrative, and a corpus oftheological texts to which both scholars andlaypeople can refer, indigenous religious tra-ditions can only be characterized by diversityrecognizing that each people (or tribe ornation) has a unique vision of how the universe came into being, is structured, shapespeoples behaviors in life, and can undergo peri-ods of total collapse followed by regeneration. ose visions are communicated and trans-mitted mainly through oral narratives or per-formative remembering of primordial acts in

collective ceremonies. No single set of featurescan be applied to the creator deities of indige-nous peoples, nor do indigenous peoples neces-sarily understand the function of creating inthe same way as non-indigenous peoples, sinceeach indigenous culture has elaborated its own

Fig. 1.1 Kwakwakawakw(Kwakiutl) potlatch withdancers and singers inphoto by E. S. Curtiss.


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continuity of the order established in primdial times, through the ritual means bestowon humans in the primordial past.

Indigenous peoples have traditionasought to forge their ways of life in consona with all other forms of life in their natural s

roundings. is has profound consequences funderstanding their spiritualities. Firstly, alllife is conceived in terms of innumerable shand long-term cycles, from the short cyclesowering plants and the alternation of day anight to the longer cycles of human life, life of social units, to the longest cycle ofthe cosmos, whichlike human lifeis bogrows old, transforms to the spirit world, aregenerates in a new cycle. Concepts of humlife cycles are thus modeled on other life cyof the world around them and the larger comos in which their world is situated. From ttime children begin to become aware of ways of the world, they are taught to be mally responsible for respecting and maintainthese cycles.

e extent to which indigenous religiotraditions have developed calendric moof time passage, the cycles sometimes canextraordinarily longfor example, the Mand Aztec of Central America are celebrafor having developed long count calendthat last tens of thousands of years, startfrom the calculated date of creation to a foseen end-time, followed by the regeneratof life. It is remarkable how indigenous cultuthe world over celebrate cosmos-generating uals with such calendric precision that the r

gious specialists guard and transmit the timof long-cycle transitions over many generati(e.g., the new re ceremony of the Aztecs, cebrated every fty-two years; or the Sigi emony among the Dogon of Mali, which acelebrated in cycles of sixty years).

Some Common Elements inIndigenous Religious Traditions

On the most general level, native traditionsshare one or more of the following features in

their worldviews, or orientations to ultimate real-ity : (1) ey attribute enormous importanceto ancestral lands, sacred geography, and localsacred sites, which are seen as portals to the pri-mordial past through which people can receivethe original life-force of their own deities orancestors. (2) Access to sacred knowledge isgained by those who have undergone the trialsand privations of initiation or are apprenticesto the religious specialists. (3) Great value isinvested in kinship obligations (consanguin-eal and affinal) and their fulllment, whichare considered to be the arena of harmony andconict, as well as key features in native peo-ples orientations to ultimate reality. (4) esacred traditions are transmitted principallyby oral and performative means, through nar-ratives about prior worlds, when communica-tions between humans and other-than-humanbeings (animals, spirits, deities) were normal.(5) ey emphasize demonstrations of gener-osity, giving thanks to the creators for the giftof life and abundance, showing humility andrejection of displays of individual power andarrogance, seeking to abide by the ways ofthe ancestors, and being respectful to animalsor other nonhuman beings. (6) ey recognizethe sacred powers of the spirits and deities andtheir material embodiment and emplacement

in this world. ese powers can be overwhelm-ingdangerously mixed blessings that impartto humanity special knowledgeor they can befocused in benevolent, caring, strong leadershipthat guides humans through their life crises.(7) ey share responsibility in ensuring the


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is calledanimism. All beings in nature are ani-mate, exercise intention (hunting, making shel-ters, performing rituals); however, the bodieof nonhuman beings (birds, sh, trees, stones)differ from humans and amongst themselvesConsequently, their perceptions of, and per-

spectives on, the life around them, their rela-tions to other kinds of beings, and their sensesof time and space vary. While many indigenouspeoples believe that distinct kinds of beings mashare similar cultural patterns, the perceptionsof these other peoples own worldswhicare biologically, historically, and culturally situatedin turn shape the ways they understandand relate to each other. So, according to thestories, a human may see a vulture (of the vulture people, considered to be a potentiallytreacherous tribe) eating grubs from a rotten logon the ground, but from the vultures point of view, it is actually catching live sh from a poof water. e vulture, from its perspective, seesas living food what humans see as rot; the rot othe vulture in turn can ruin the corporeal beautyof human beings, making what was once beau-tiful become ugly with an abominable stench.

Shamans are prime examples of what imeans to have a multi-perspectival point of viewof the worlds that constitute the cosmos sincthey have been schooled in the mastery of theknowledge and powers of the other peoples inorder to communicate with them. When a sha-mans soul transforms into a jaguar, to the out-side observer, it may look like he is snuffing drinking a psychoactive, but from the shaman- jaguars point of view, he is actually drinkin

the blood of a deity, that is, incorporating itslife-force, which enables the shamans soul ttransform into an other kind of being, a jaguarspirit, and y into the other world of the deities.

irdly, indigenous peoples worldviewsare in general highly transformational, that is

Dogon mask dance. ey are actors ina cosmic theater, aiming to re-create the

creation of the world, of men, of vegetableand animal species, and of the stars. Whatis happening is that this period of dangerand disorder that has been brought aboutby death is now brought to an end by theevocation of the fundamental moments inthe genesis of the universe. e audience,enthusiastic but solemn, watches with greatattention the development of the differentstages in the ritual.

Secondly, humans are one among manykinds of animate beings who share in life-forces, or souls, and whose ways of life orcultures are believed to be very similar. ebelief that all beings possess one or more souls

Fig. 1.2 Dogon masks, Mali, Africa.


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the item being exchanged. us external, matrial forms, on bodies, cover spiritual foFurthermore, external bodily forms are ofadorned and painted, indicating some viquality of their inner selves.

Such religious acts as worshiping a de

nding a lost soul, changing from one another form of life, and intermixing of divand human worlds are not only perfectly poble in these traditions but are also much desir A person cannot become fully human with adult identity, for example, until he or she hbeen introduced face-to-face with the sacrother peoples in initiatory experiences. may have been the foundation for the monmental cave paintings found at Lascaux, example, places where initiates were presento the full power of the sacred other hidd within the depths of the earth.

Sacred narratives often explain differenbetween the perspectives of native and nonative peoples to be the result of separatithat occurred at the end of the primordial ag At that time, non-native peoples were givcertain kinds of knowledge and native peop were instructed to live in the knowledge of thancestors, which new generations of adushould reproduce.

Fourthly, natural forms of symmetry aasymmetry gure prominently in native rresentations of lifefrom the weaving of testries with designs that recall both natuand historical forms to the building of houmodeled on the structure of the cosmos. Socrelations are also ideally based on symmetr

as, for example, in reciprocal trade relationmarriagealthough asymmetric forms suas social inequalities emerge from differenaccess to and ownership of sacred power.

Societies with peoples not consideredbe fully human by other societies (gener

one type of being may transform into another(animal into human or human to spirit, and vice versa). In primordial times, these transfor-mations occurred very frequently because theboundaries of time, space, self, and other wereas yet porous and indistinguishable. Today, pri-

marily religious specialists (shamans, especially)are adept at soul transformation, while normalhuman beings souls are believed to undergotransformation mainly during moments ofritually dened life passage. Only in certaincontexts can nonhuman, spirit beings actuallytransform into humans; the vast majority of theother spirit beings retain their unique, visible,material form (as plants or animals), coveringtheir invisible (except to shamans) forms orselves. If an exchange occurs between beingsof different worlds, a transformation occurs in

Fig. 1.3 Nineteenth-century face mask from an island inthe Torres Strait, Australia.


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actions of primordial beings and deities whomade or transformed the features of this worldand left them for humans to care for and min-ister to their creations. Stated another way, theprimordial beings left evidence of their presence in the marvelous forms of creation o

this world (for example, Devils Tower in theBlack Hills, considered to be a sacred placfor many native peoples of the Plains). Eachof these creations has its own sacred time andspace; humans are entrusted with the respon-sibility of caring for, preserving, and respecting what the primordial beings had made. edeities left material representations of theirbodies in the earth, along with sacred symbolfor humans to use in ceremonies in order toremember and renew their connections withthe divinities.

One of the great dilemmas in nativethought is how a world in which there is con-stant change developed from a primordial con-dition of innite space and unchanging time.How can a way of life be perpetuated for altimes despite constant changes that threatenorder with chaos? How can human life, with alits limitations, transcend the trials of death anddecay? e most important way is re-member-ing primordial acts and events through ritualsthat prominently feature sacred symbols associated with the bodies of the deities. e sacredis in some way always and everywhere presenin contemporary life as long as humansespecially the knowledgeable elders, priests, holpeople, or shamanscontinue to guard, keepand minister to the sacred in this world. e

major world religions, by contrast, require loyalty to hierarchical structures, centralization oreligious authority, and constant renewal of thehistorical founders original acts enshrined foall to worship, where spiritual governance habecome hegemonic in its power.

based on cosmology and creation narratives,but also captives of war) have often been usedin exchange relations or to labor for their supe-riors. Captives of war, for example, were some-times incorporated into the societies of theircaptors as domestic servants or laborers. isinequality does not necessarily imply the kindof chattel slavery as understood by the West. Although hierarchical relations of dominanceand submission have certainly been docu-mented in many historical indigenous societiesof the world, the relations of master or owner

can rather refer to relations of symbiosis, com-plementarity, authority, and obedience on themodel of parental relations to children, or own-ers to their domesticated pets.

Fifthly, indigenous peoples believe alllife to have come into existence through the

Fig. 1.4 Shipibo bowl from Peru, on permanentdisplay at the University of British Columbia's Museum ofAnthropology, Vancouver, Canada.


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We Are from the Forest, Earth,and Air: Universal Knowledge

e following speech was presented byBarasana shaman, Tukanoan-speaking indenous people from the Northwest Amazin Colombia, to accompany the lm Trational Knowledge of the Jaguar-Shamansthe Yurupar Tradition. is tradition waofficially included in 2011 by UNESCO inRepresentative List of the Intangible CultuHeritage of Humanity.1 Centuries ago, all the indigenous cultures of the Northwest Amzon region and upper Orinoco had traditiosimilar to the one presented here. After seve

centuries of historical contact, the reductin the indigenous populations due to diseasenslavement, and rubber-gathering, along wCatholic and Protestant missionary repressof the tradition on the basis of a false assoction with the Christian devil, has meant th

Sixthly, native religious thought can beprofoundly dualistic. All of existence can bedivided into a series of interlocking, comple-mentary oppositions, producing a whole (simi-lar to the principles of yin and yang in Chinese Taoism). Life and death, female and male, har-mony and disharmony, self and other producedynamics that play themselves out on the stageof life in history, as they do in any culture. Innon-christianized, indigenous religious tradi-tions, however, notions of good and evil arenot understood in terms of a struggle from which there will nally emerge a victor; rather,the enemy other is actually seen as necessaryfor the existence of collective self-identity. Sor-cery, while discouraged and feared, is as much

a part of tribal spiritual life as the harmonious joy of celebrating and dancing with ones ownkin and allies from other tribes. Further, sorcerymay be seen as a necessary societal mechanismfor limiting the abuses of power or to redressperceived wrongs.

Fig. 1.5 AboriginArt of the DreamtimCarnarval Gorge,Australia.


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Each group has its own way of takingcare of the world.

Its own way of carrying out healing,But we all share the same system for taking

care of the world.. . .

Knowledge is made up of physical and spiritual elements. ere are elements thatenable thought to continue,

Such as the yaj vine. e Yurupar plumage And the Maloca [longhouse] which is a

physical representation of the cosmos; With each of its divisions symbolizing the

most important sites of the territory And is the center of knowledge for taking

care of the territory, According to the seasons of the ecologica

and cultural calendar. ere is also coca and tobacco,Coca is a very valuable element for the con

tinuity of knowledge;

this traditionwhich is based on a profoundunderstanding of the sources of vital energyin the cosmosremains alive only among afew communities. For that reason, the Barasanapeople sought to protect the traditions fromdisappearing altogether by seeking UNESCO

recognition as a vital heritage. Similarly, theirneighbors of the Arawak language family havegained international recognition for their jag-uar-shamans knowledge of Yurupar.

As the following statement shows, the Yurupar tradition speaks to issues of culturalcontinuity and spiritual links with the entirehabitat, and is an embodied and emplaced spir-ituality (see gures 1.69 below):

Traditional Knowledge of the Jaguar-Shamans of Yurupar (spoken by Maximiliano Garcia, Makunaof the Northwest Amazon, Colombia;translation by the author)

We are from the forest, the earth, from theair itself;

We come from the Ancestral Anaconda,Historically we have protected the envi-

ronment. We are like Guardians, theProtectors of Nature. We are owners ofuniversal knowledge!

We are from the Pira-paran River, Territory of the Jaguars of YuruparOur ancestors travelled from the lower part

of the Apaporis River,Entering the Caquet River, then crossing

over the Apaporis River.Going to the headwaters of the Apaporis

River, And entering the Pira-paran until reach-

ing its headwaters. We are the many different ethnic groups

living there with different languages. Fig. 1.6 Yurupari jaguar shamans.


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It is here that the system of organizthought

And self-governance are concentrated. ey are sites where energy ows a

which gives life to the rest of nature. Traditional knowledge is reected in t

daily activities of the women,It is a knowledge they have acquired o

millennia for preparing food.For carrying out rituals, for caring for

family.For health and for the transfer of th

knowledgeOur knowledge is a holistic system at is not concentrated only in the shamaOr in specic people.. . . We want to conserve this knowledgeBecause it is our life.It is the knowledge of the forest.

For the continuation of knowledge thatenables learning.

Because coca is thought,It is a means that enables us to understand

things better. at enables us to have an appropriate and

healthy system of human behavior. Tobacco is the very essence of life,It is like the sensitivity that exists within a

human body. Which enables us to understand better, to

accept things with wisdom. Just as we have vital organs for the func-

tioning of our bodies,So the territory has its vital organs.Its vital organs are the sacred sitesFound in rivers, hills, lakes, or stones.In these places, there is knowledge. ere is wisdom, ere is understanding and power.

Fig. 1.7 Dance of the Panpipes, northwest Amazon.


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heritage of the many ethnic groups living alongthe Pir Paran River in southeastern Colom-bia, in the department of Vaups. According toancestral wisdom, the Pir Paran forms theheart of a large area called the territory of th jaguars of Yurupar, the jaguars being the jaguar-shamans, an elite group of highly trainedand knowledgeable specialists who guard thancient knowledge of the cosmos. ey under-stand that the cosmos is a living being withsources of energy, just as the human body haits own sources of energy that make the lifforce (blood) ow throughout the system. Inother words, the sacred sites contain vital spiri

tual energy that nurtures all living beings in the world. e jaguar-shamans follow a calendar of

ceremonial rituals, based on their sacred tra-ditional knowledge, to draw the communitytogether, heal, prevent sickness, and revitaliz

And with this we want to guarantee life forall people on this earth.

e continuity of the knowledge, ofthought, the power to care for theterritory,

is is the model for living at we have maintained for a long time.It is the model left to us by our ancestors And this is what we want to preserve.It is a model that can help With intercultural tools,For solving the global environmental crisis.

Maintaining Life and Healththrough Ritual

e mythical and cosmological structures thatmake up the traditional knowledge of the jag-uar-shamans of Yurupar represent the cultural

Fig. 1.8 Hipana, the sacred waterfalls that mark the place of origin of indigenous peoples of northwest Amazon.


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created at sacred places, which are conceivetoday as the vital organs of the founding anctor of the tradition.

Among the Kogi peoples, a priestly sociof the Sierra Nevada of northern Colombthe mama priests likewise have a deep kno

edge of the dynamics of nature in the univsal sense, known as the law of Aluma , or tGreat Mother. Changes in the environmetal cycles due to global warming prompKogi priests in 1995 and 2012 to issueWarning to the Younger Brother in the forof two BBC lms, explaining how the waylife of the white man younger brothers bringing on the destruction of the planet. priests message urges that something be dimmediately before the world is completdestroyed.

nature. e rituals feature songs and dancesthat constitute the healing process. e vitalenergy and traditional knowledge of the sha-mans are believed to be inherited from a pow-erful, mythical demiurge called Yurupar, which, among the Barasana, was an anacondathat lived as a person and is today embodied in very sacred trumpets that are made from a palmtree, which altogether make up the body partsof the Anaconda Ancestor. Each ethnic groupconserves its own Yurupar trumpets, whichform the centerpiece in the most sacredHeeBiki (Grandfather Anaconda) ritual. Duringthis ritual, traditional guidelines for maintain-ing the health of the people and the territoryare transmitted to male children as a part oftheir passage into adulthood. e traditionalknowledge concerning care of children, preg-nant women, and food preparation is transmit-ted among women. In short, in the Northwest Amazon, indigenous peoples heritages areembodied in the sacred instruments, which arethe vehicle that enables the young initiates togrow and understand the world, and to live ahealthy life. ey were, in Tukanoan tradition,

Fig. 1.9 Jaguar mortar, Chorrera culture, east coast ofEcuador (1500300BCE ).

Fig. 1.10 Native Americans from southeastern Idaho, lanineteenth to early twentieth centuries.


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great deal of harm to the indigenous peoplesand their culture.

ose non-indigenous societies, assuminga constantly expanding frontier and exhibit-ing an unrelenting drive to settle and developsupposedly unoccupied lands, have paid littlattentionuntil very recentlyto the long-term future of environmental effects on thepopulations of humans and nonhumans whosepredecessors actually have lived on those landfor thousands of years. With few exceptions, alof these factors have radically changed nativpeoples relations to their ancestral homeland

and consequently put in question the viabilityof maintaining their ceremonies and tradi-tions. By far the greatest struggle that indig-enous peoples throughout the world haveconfronted over centuries of contact with exogenous, invading societies has been the latter

Contact, Displacement,Prophecy: Indigenous Religious

Traditions over Time

After centuries of contact, fewif anyindig-enous peoples can be said to be living thesame religious traditions as their ancestors offour or ve centuries ago. With regard to theimportance of ancestral lands, historical changehas been most dramatic in countries such asthe United States, where the policy of forcedremoval from ancestral lands and relocation to

government-designated reservations or board-ing schools dramatically changed Native peo-ples lifeways and religious traditions, forcingmany of the elder religious specialists to seekalternative ways of guarding the traditions. Notall were successful, and these changes caused a

Fig. 1.11 Early twentieth-century Catholic mission station in Nauru, Micronesia.


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one, external, referring to the disorganizing andde-structuring effects of contacts with nonna-tive societies. Such disorganization frequentlmanifests itself as a rise in accusations of witchcraft and sorcery, demonstrating the uneaseand the threats to traditional ways of life by the

advance of Western civilization and the trans-formations it brings. Conversion offers morareform, which enables native peoples to controthe witchcraft and regain their integrity vis--vis intruders. e other problem is internal,having to do with dilemmas inherent to cos-mologies and inherited from primordial timesfor example, the ontological status of affina(in-law, outsider, other) groups and theiperceived threat to the continuity of consan-guineal or descent kin groups; the challenges oharnessing dangerous shamanic power for the

the prominence of celestial powers; the rever-sion of the transformed earth to native control;arduous restrictions on believers; and the trans-formation of the believers bodies into healthy,invulnerable, or even immortal beings.

Historical prophet movements have often

been marked by the ways in which native peo-ples have appropriated Christian symbols, prac-tices, and representations of authority, oftenindependently of any kind of missionary inter-ference. Christian missionaries, for their part,have often been surprised by the manner in which native peoples have converted en masseto the religions they have introducedsome-times with the same enthusiasm with whichthey have followed prophetic leaders. Conver-sion movements can be interpreted as solutionsto two kinds of issues faced by native societies:

Fig. 1.13 Engraving of a nineteenth-century New England missionary preaching in a kukui grove in Hawaii.


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of relating how they made the world ready peoples (in the broadest sense of the term pe ple ), later withdraw from creation leaving futgenerations to take care of the new wor e divine beings are self-generated and segenerating principles that set the universe

motion. ey hold within themselves the duaity of being and becoming, manifesting theselves as specic phenomenal beings (the moon, animals, etc.), although, in so doing, thdo not lose their original nature of constbecoming or intentionality.

In other cases, creation occurs through ttransformations initiated by primordial beinfrom some preexisting state or condition tradically other state, which is then transmitfor all future generations. Countless narratiaffirm the existence of other worlds that pexisted the current one; each is imperfect asuffers catastrophic destruction by ood, other natural disasters, putrefaction, or petriftion. From this destruction, a variety of symbappear, which then serve as vehicles throu which the order created can be reproduced anew worlds brought into being.

us, in the sacred text of the QuichMaya, calledPopol Vuh (Book of Counsel), trst humans were mudmen who had no psibility of sustaining lifethey were simplysolved. e second was a race of beings maof wood, which again did not satisfy the gand was destroyed by a ood. A third, a racehumans was excessively vain and also didsatisfy the gods because the humans could like the gods and tried to be like them. So t

gods threw dust in their eyes and made theshort-sighted; these rst men and women wthen made to praise and give thanks to the dties as well as to populate the earth.

Native peoples imagine the primodial times as epochs when all was possi

purposes of social reproduction; and so forth.Clearly, explanations may draw equally on bothhypotheses.

Cosmogony: The Primordial Times of Creation

ere is an enormous diversity in the scenar-ios of creation that indigenous peoples haveelaborated. Sacred stories sometimes affirm thedivine origin of the universe as an intention,

a self-germinating seed, oating in an innitespace of nothingness. e primordial state ofbeing undergoes transformations, gradually orabruptly, over multiple epochs. Creation mayunfold as the thought, dream, or intentions ofdivine being(s), who, after numerous episodes

Fig. 1.14 Initiation ritual tableau in a ceremonial house invillage of Apangai, Papua, New Guinea.


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Fig. 1.15 Map of indigenous religious traditions in the world.

ALGERIA

ICELAND

DEN.

NETH.

BEL.

FRANCESWITZ.

LEBANONISRAEL

JORDAN

AUS.

I T A L Y SPAINPORTUGAL

L.

UNITEDKINGDOM

IRELAND

MOROCCO

MAURITANIA

WESTERNSAHARA

CAMEROONSAO TOME & PRINCIPE

GHANA

BENINTOGO

SENEGALGAMBIA

GUINEA-BISSAUSIERRA LEONE

LIBERIAIVORY COAST

EQUATORIAL GUINEAGABON

CONGOZAMBIA

NAMIBIA

CONGO(ZAIRE)

ANGOLA

SOUTHAFRICA

MALI

BURK.

NIGERCHAD

CENT.AF. REP.

SUDAN

ETHIOPIA

LIBYA EGYPT

TUNISIA

NIGERIA

MOZAMBIQUE

MALAWI

RWANDAKENYA

UGANDA

YEMENOMAN

DJIBOUTIERITREA

SOMALIA

BURUNDI

MADAGASCAR

TANZANIA

ZIMBABWE

BOTSWANA

N

O

R

W A

Y

S

W E

D

E

N

F I N L

A N

D

GER. POL.

HUN.

TURKEY

SYRIA

GEO. AZER.ARM.

IRAQ IRAN

KAZAKHSTAN

AFGHAN.

I N D I A

NEPALBHU.

MONGOLIA

N.KOREA

S.KOREA JAPAN

A U S T R A L I A

TAIWAN

PAPUNEW

CAMBODIA

SINGAPORE

MALAYSIA

EAST TIMOR

I N D O N E S I A

C H I N A

B.DESH

SAUDIARABIA

R U S S I A

CZECH. SLOV.

MOLDAVIAUKRAINE

BELORUSSIA

L A O

S

V I E T N A M

T H A I L A N D

B U R M A

T U R K M E N

U Z B E K .

P A K I S

T A N

A T L A N T I C

O C E A N

I N D I A N

O C E A N


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this orderly transmission, the original order habeen subject to all manner of disorganizationdeparture from the original norms, and sense-less violence. Harmony versus disharmony, anpredation versus reciprocal relations are thelements of eternal struggles in which humans

seek to maintain not only order, beauty, andharmony but also the means for controllingabuses of power, in whatever form they take.

For many native peoples, creation is not aclosed circle in which what happened in theprimordial times will last for eternity, for oftenthe stories leave the question unansweredof whether the creator ever really went awayforever or still lives somewhere in the present world. Also, divine order may occasionallintervene in history when conditions call foit, through prophets whose messages, receivedfrom their deities, warn not only of comingdangers or offer a utopia where there will bno more sickness or suffering but also givcounsel, preparing the souls of their followerto always remain watchful and faithful to theold ways.

Cosmology: Space, Time,and the Orderly Structuresof the Universe

ere are two main orientations of spatialstructure: horizontal and vertical. Neither con-sists of continuous, straight-line arrangementsof different worlds of spirit beings and deities e complex constructions of indigenous cos-

mologies and the plethora of values associate with the different parts of the cosmos permit usto make only a few broad generalizations. Usually, native peoples think of each of the multipl worlds in the universe as relatively at planecircular and bounded by water. Some traditions

undifferentiated, simultaneous, when the formsof things had not become xed. Either a sin-gle creator being or a group of creators livedin a perilous world in which humans, animals,and spirits warred among themselves, com-mitted errors that would later become part ofthe human condition, sought to create orderdespite the perennial existence of anti-orderthat destroyed what was created, and so on.

Another phase in the history of creation

introduced into the world the essential meansfor biological and cultural transmissionnamely, sacred plants, sacred sounds and musi-cal instruments, and sacred rituals, leaving thesefor all future generations. Although humanity was given the responsibility for maintaining

Fig. 1.16 Tattooed indigenous man from New Caledonia,Oceania, 1846.


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the dead into animals who return to earth aprovide food for their descendants and famin times of need.

e middle world, the center of the universis the place where all life-forms as we knthem, began, including human life. Tropic

forest peoples imagine the earthly plane as concentric rings of a tree, considering the innmost circle of the earthly plane the most ancie where the true people live while the outer rirepresent different moments in time, associa with different places and other peoples thave experienced or become aware of; the oermost layer, the bark of the tree, is the borbetween one peoples universe and anotheDifferent kinds of space and places of beingthe horizontal layers are systematically relateone another through the narratives that delieate the extent of each peoples worlds.

Horizontal spaces highlight the center, multiple centers, associated with a wide varof images (cosmic trees, mountains, waterfladders, vines) symbolizing sources of energthe cosmos. ese form part of the larger conception of the universe-as-body, consistingmultiple organs and energies that work togeth e peripheries, or spaces on the outer marginoften express in inverted form (demonic spienemy others, outsiders) the key values ofcenter. ese enemy others constantly seek waof penetrating a peoples universe to predateits food supply or to realize some other formexchange. A variety of intermediary elemeopenings, and penetrations connect inner aouter realms in the same way that upper a

lower realms are interrelated. In native So American cosmologies, the places where sacbeings rst appeared often become models innumerable spatial constructs.

Indigenous cosmologies illustrate a remaable quality of exibility in their construct

represent islands of earth piled up on top of aprimordial water animal such as the turtle, oth-ers as pieces of rock oating in endless space, yet connected with other worlds by variouskinds of holes and tubes running through theircenters. Horizontal structures include markers

of the main directions (mountains, lakes), as well as one or more centers, comprising a sacredgeography of important places situated arounda center. e universe is a series of layers, whichcan be arranged either vertically or horizontally, which are different worlds in which differentkinds of beings live.

e vertical structures of the universe vary widely in composition, from simple three-layerarrangements (upper world, middle world,underworld) to massive, multilayer composi-tions inhabited by a great variety of beings. ere is a clear correlation between the mul-tilayered-cosmos idea and the structures ofspiritual power or knowledge in society, as well as, homologously, the arrangement of the vital points on a persons body (heart, umbili-cus, crown), which connect the person with thespiritual sources of power and knowledge.

In general, the upper worlds are associ-ated with the creative and life-renewing forcesof light (the sun), lightness, and liquids (rain), with important places where soul transforma-tion takes place, as well as dwellings of theancestors, often featured as worlds of order,beauty, and happiness. ey may be associated with the highest deities, the primordial beings who were responsible for all of creation and itsimperfections.

e underworlds are associated withplaces of darkness, netherworlds of the bodilyremains of the dead, animal souls, and mon-strous, inverted beings who can cause sicknessto humans. Or they consist of worlds where theprogenitors of animals transform the souls of


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Beings and Their Relationships

is section discusses the nature of humans andother-than-human beings who populate the world and with whom native peoples interact.

Interrelationality What constitutes, for indigenous peoples, theself, the person, categories of person-in-time(ancestors and their descendants)? e personconsists of several souls, modes of consciouness, mental and physical faculties, intention-alities, sentiments, bodies, along with ongoingrelatedness to different kinds of beings. ereligious beliefs and practices of indigenoupeoples are characterized by a conviction thaspirit moves through all things, animate andinanimate, subjects and objects, and that theliving are intimately connected with the soulof their deceased ancestors.

e universe is most denitely not ahuman-centered place to live but consists ofmultiple types of beings, each in its own spaceeach having distinct points of view, attributesphysical and spiritual characteristics. Each kinof being is related to most others through cul-turally dened types of relationsfor examplepredator/prey, ally/enemy, master/pet, owner/owned, parent/children, in-laws, and so on.

e elaborate structures of space and timethat order the universe, coupled with the fre-quent beliefs in multiple souls and a rich symbolism of the human body, integrate humanityinto the cosmic system through which life

unfolds. Humans relationships to the divineare often mediated by priests, shamans, divin-ers, religious artists, and other specialists. eseinteractions take the form of worship, prayers othanksgiving, and supplication, sacrice, mystical union with divinities, ritual combat with

Far from being xed and static things outthere or models of how the universe is struc-tured, cosmologies are better described interms of their plasticity, their capacities toexpand and contract, their permeability (that is,their openness to the external world). Mythic

narratives of the creation often display this fea-ture of expanding and contracting worlds tomark major moments of transition and growthfrom one state of being to another. e reli-gious specialists are the guardians, as well asthe artisans of the cosmos, for they interpretevents and occurrences in relation to possibili-ties of cosmic change.

e creation stories often provide a culturalcartography of the territorial conceptions ofindigenous peoples. As one ethnographer notes,Virtually every landmark in the forest or alongthe river has some signicance in the myths oforigin of one group or another. ese symbolicconceptions of space have persisted despitesubstantial changes in social organization andeconomic and political life. ey are integralto the cultural identity, health, and continuityof indigenous peoples. Along with indigenousenvironmental and land-use knowledge, theseconceptions of identity are fundamental to thedetermination of land-tenure policies and thedelineation of indigenous territories in modernpeoples attempts to have a positive effect uponthe conservation of ecosystems. To incorporateindigenous environmental knowledge, land-use practices, and conceptions of sacred spaceinto an indigenous territorial model entailscombining detailed ethnographic, historical,

and ecological knowledge. Linking these cul-tural conceptions with political, economic, andreligious considerations provides an integratedapproach to the conservation of ecosystems andis more in keeping with the land-extensive sub-sistence practices of indigenous societies.


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life-principle of the person. All throughoones life, the person must struggle to maintthe strength of the spiritual name-soul over tphysical appetites and desires or emotionsthe animal soul. One does this by singing tbeautiful words that come in inspiration fr

the ancestors.Multiple souls gained throughout a li

time constitute the person and his or her conections with other beings (e.g., companispirits). Each of these souls leaves the bodthe moment of death and returns to the plain the cosmos from which it originally caDream-souls and dream interpretation are paticularly important in identifying the soulsother peoples, enemies, and sorcerers. Soimageryin naming ceremonies, sacred muand song, drumming, sacred utes and trumpetsis fundamental to the production of t

spirits, or the celebration of divinely institutedfestivals, preferably as nearly as possible to the way they were done in the beginning.

Bodies and Souls

L. Sullivan2

has distinguished two systematictendencies with regard to beliefs regarding thesoul in South America but that may apply toother areas of the globe as well: (1) ere is aphysiological element, which affirms that thesoul is situated in specic body parts, cotermi-nous with the functioning of the bodily organsand dened by animal appetites (food, sex).Often, such souls extend to animals who arethe doubles of their counterpart human soul-

elements. (2) ere is also an epistemologicalelement, in which spiritual elements are asso-ciated with specic human faculties (thought,memory). Here, the human being is affirmedas a self-contained and autonomous being setapart from the object of its perceptions. eseare broad categories that are not necessarilyseparable but rather manifest themselves insynaesthetically intertwined images of beautyand sensual delight, or fear of unknown powers.

In some cultures, the most important of thesouls are linked in a network extending backto the primordial times; in others, the strongerattachment of the soul may be with ceremonialgroups based on names, residence, or types ofritual performance.

Among the Guarani peoples of South America, there are two kinds of souls: one islinked to the animal appetites of the per-

son, while the otherconsidered to be moreimportant because it comes from the ances-torsis the name-soul, which is bestowed onthe child by a shaman shortly after the childsbirth. e name-soul is the reincarnation of theancestor into life; the name-soul is the sacred

Fig. 1.17 Quoniambec, Tupinamba Chief, sixteenthcentury CE .


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among the Maori peoples of New Zealand orthe Marquesas Islanders.

Being a member of a community impliesconsubstantiality, that is, the sharing of bodyuids as in sexual relations, or spiritual connections to ancestors such as a collective umbilical cordsoul, or even a collective body-soucommon to members of the same social group(nuclear or extended families, siblings, clans).

Body painting is intimately connected withnotions of self and other and can thus be linked

to historical contactfor example, a change indiet regime, or food taboos, or conversion toChristianity bring about fundamental changesin notions of corporality (often in a negativesense), sicknesses such as obesity, diabetes caries, and a host of other irregularities.

person. A rich symbolism of corporality is con-nected to the notion of the person. roughthis symbolism, indigenous cultures expressfundamental values dening spaces constitutiveof human life.

Among the meanings attributed to the

notion of transformation in indigenousbelief and practice is that human bodies andselves are complex and socially constructed. Traditionally, this has been expressed throughbody ornaments, masks, coverings or cloth-ing, mantles of jaguar pelts, bird feathers, bearrobes, loincloths, body painting, tattooing, andhairstyles. ese kinds of clothing, adorn-ments, and alterations are often understoodboth as ways of domesticating an animalinterior, essential to the socialization of culturalbeings, while highlighting a specic cognitive,spiritual quality or power that the person hasgained through life passages. ese externalmanifestations mediate between the interiorself, society, and the cosmos. In rites of passage(birth, initiation, and death), persons acquirecognitive and emotional qualities, which con-stitute them as persons.

e body is also the locus of moral issuesthat are fundamental to becoming fully human.In many cultures, control over body oricesby fasting, for exampleis the mark of a fullycultural human being, while transgressions ofboundaries between beings that ought to bemaintained separate provoke catastrophic trans-formations; this is perhaps the most importantknowledge that initiates acquire when they areexposed for the rst time to the sacred.

A beautifully decorated body is one thatis fully ornamented, with earrings, beadwork,kneebands, featherwork, elaborate hairstyles.Body painting or tattoos, representing a vari-ety of metaphysical and moral properties, areetched in exquisitely symmetrical patterns, as

Fig. 1.18 Totem on an Indian (Tlingit) grave,Wrangell, Alaska.


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symbols of religious culture, expressing chasocial and cultural reproduction over time, athe very acts of creation.

Religious specialists

Shamans, priests, diviners, ceremonial dancsorcerers, artisans, and prophets are respsible for managing these interrelations, intpreting the realities of the external worldsother peoples, spirits, enemies to peopletheir own society, coordinating ritual relatioamong spirits and humans, ensuring that tmost fundamental principles of the univeare observed, acting as the guardians of moity, holding at bay possible attacks from sp

beings, determining whether the newly arrivEuropeans were human, and so on. Religiospecialists differ ontologically from normbeings of a species. (Animals and plants mhave their shamans or medicine people too.)

Generally speaking, whereas the shamderive their power from direct knowledge aexperience of the deities and places of the cmos, the priests or holy persons power is baon the accurate recall of canonical and esotknowledge, which is essential for rites of psagethat is, for the reproduction of society,renewal of the world, and the ontological cagories that dene the nature of being. While tshamans are relatively more egalitarian or docratic in their internal organizationthat anyone can become a shaman who accepts years of arduous training and perilous expencesthe priests come from a specic line

or class chosen at birth and are trained througout their lives. Priestly functions,it should bnoted, such as chanting at passage rites, may be exercised by the elderly men or women ofsociety without there being a recognized cof priests with political and religious functio

Ancestors and descendants e importance of bonds that tie the ances-tors deeds to their living human descendantsare found throughout the indigenous world: inNorth America, there is the emphasis on theimportance of a persons acts having repercus-sions for the seventh generation. In South America, for the peoples of the Northwest Amazon, the deities created a world for theirdescendants, a bond that ties the ancestorsdeeds (whether these were errors or gifts) to liv-ing and future humans, who must abide by thatorder and are responsible for reproducing thatorder, until another end-of-the-world. Simi-larly, the concept of a continuing relationshipof mutual dependence between the living andtheir ancestors is central to Mapuche (Chile)religion and the moral order of their society. Among the Guarani Indians of the southernCone of South America, cults to the bones ofancestral holy people (karai , big men) havebeen well documented. In Africa, Siberia, andelsewhere, families maintain ancestral shrines with the assistance of local shamans. In Austra-lia, as in Africa, Amazonia, and highland South

America, the physical landscape is seen as asacred geography, where portals to the sacredare found everywhere in the traces and marksleft by the ancestors for their descendants toremember their deeds and as guides for thefuture.

Ritual lifeRituals are highlighted by feasts held at impor-

tant moments of the agricultural cycle, or bythe spectacular rites of passage for momentsof birth, initiation, and death throughout theindigenous world. ese renew the links ofhumanity with primordial creative powers.Ritual music, songs, and chants are the great


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to the mystery and power of death as an inte-gral part of human existence. For many culturesthe condition of mortality implies a transitory,ephemeral life, one of constant metamorphosesSacred stories often explain that death enteredthe world in the context of a trialthe failure

to pass a test or to undergo an ordeal, makinga fatal choice, or giving an inopportune signal e rituals associated with death are amongthe most elaborate of all processes of passageoccupying a critical theme in all native traditions. ese involve processes of administeringthe passage of the deceased between existencin this world and incorporation into the other,processes of healing the sentiments of kin whom the deceased have left behind.

Anthropophagy, for example, was oncea practice among various peoples of lowlanSouth America, of Papua New Guinea andother areas of the world. It generally took twoforms: the consumption of the esh remainsor the ashes of a cremated kinsperson or theconsumption of the esh of the enemy killedin war. e rst practice has been shown to bemore related to assuaging the intense sufferingor consuming grief,4 at the moment of loss ofclose kin.

Among the hill-dwelling indigenous peo-ples of the northern Philippines, the practice oftaking heads was not only a demonstration of a young mans becoming a warrior, but it was alsa way of casting away the burden of grief at thloss of kin because of feuds and raiding, and inthat sense it can be considered a piacular rite.5 For the Tupian-speaking peoples of the Atlan-

tic coastal region of South America, the elaborate rituals related to warfare, taking captivessacricing the captives, and eating the esh oones enemy represented a critical transitionthat had as much to do with vengeance as theydid with reproducing the social foundations of

Traditionally, priestly societies are organizedinto hierarchies and sacred societies, linked to thedistinct functions priests may perform. Whilethe shamans inuence and prestige depends onhis or her performance and capacity to retain alocal clientele, the priests inuence extends over

large networks of communities who depend onthem for their knowledge and power. At initia-tion rites, postbirth and postdeath rites, a newgroup of adults, or a natal family, or the inte-gration of the deceased into the communitiesof ancestral souls, all imply shifts in the com-position of the entire society to a new situation.In some societies such as in ancient Mongolia,priests could at the same time be shamans as well as diviners and political leaders.3

Eschatology A nal important dimension of religious lifein indigenous traditions is eschatology, whichrefers to views of the end of times, whetherthat be the death of a specic individual or thedemise of the cosmos itself. At the death ofan individual, all of the components, spiritualand material, that have been bestowed on thatperson during his or her lifetime may becomereintegrated into ongoing cosmic processes. e afterlife of an individual is imagined in a wide range of potential forms, sometimes as aprocess of alienation from the world of the liv-ing and enclosure in a separate existence with-out meaningful interactions, and other times asreincarnation in some other form, or an ongo-ing communication between the living and the

dead. Eschatology also refers to the broadercosmic sense of the end-times as the end ofthe world, the destruction and regeneration ofthe universe in general.

As we have seen above, indigenous tradi-tions generally attribute enormous importance


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to honor the dead, the most important chiand aristocracy of the tribes.

In the Americas and other areas of tglobe, it is common to nd the theme of immotality in myth as a condition that existed in tprimordial world: at the moment of death, t

person would be secluded for a period of timat the end of which he or she would reemerrejuvenated. is cycle of eternal return winterrupted by the error of a person, and so mtality was introduced into the world. Shamaand prophets, however, are believed to nedie and continue to give counsel to their livkin at their burial places. In this, we see dirlinks between notions of immortality amonative peoples of the highlands and lowlandSouth America.

In numerous eschatologies, the entrancethe soul of the deceased into the other wois conditioned on his or her moral behaior and virtues in this life: those who kill,example, do not succeed in completing way of the dead souls, falling into an abysbeing attacked by swarms of bees (as amthe Makiritare of the Orinoco region of Sou America). e notions different peoples haabout life after death vary a great deal, frocompletely other existence, an inverted imof this world, to the transformation of t

time and memory. Shamanic vengeance and warfare were other means for retribution at theloss of kin and the grief death brings.

Spectacular solutions to the dilemma of what to do with the deceased of the nobleclasses in more complex indigenous societiescan be seen in the mummication practices ofthe Inca. All efforts seemed to deny that deathhad taken the deceased royalty away; rather, theroyal deceased continued to hold a privilegedposition socially, ritually, and politically in their

society long after being placed in tombs, wherespecially designated persons gave them foodand drink and cared for them. In societies suchas those of the Xingu region of central Brazil,the Kwarup ceremony is regularly held as a pan-tribal occasion, lasting several weeks, explicitly

Fig. 1.19 Inca cult gurine, located in theEnthnological Museum, Berlin, Germany.

Fig. 1.20 Petroglyphs near the west bank of the OrinocRiver at Caicara, Venezuela.


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and put it all over the little ball. He madethat stone ball become the earth.

e name of the Universe child wasHek-wapi ienipe .

He made the Sun rise up then above thenew earth, above the hole in the earth

calledHipana , the navel of the Universe e Universe-child was all alone, so he

went to look for people.He went to the Universe-navel atHipana ,

the navel of the sky.He heard people coming out of the hole,

singing their names as they came. ey came out one after another, and he

sent each one to their piece of the earth. en he looked for night, he obtained

night which was inside a little, tightly-sealed basket.

On receiving the basket of night, its spirit-owner instructed him to open it only when he reached home.

On his way back home, he marveled at its weight and opened the basket up just alittle bit,

en darkness burst out, covering the world with the rst night,

and the sun fell out the western door. e Universe-child waited for the sun to

return,He and the birds waited for it to return. When they saw the sun entering the sky

vault at the eastern door, the birds beganto sing

For it was the beginning of a new day.

e Universe child embodies the idea ofself-generation. How did it come into being? ere is no answer; it always was, along with thelittle stone ball, and the vast emptiness aroundit. In one sense, the Universe child means theuniverseas child, which throws a new light on

deceased into the gods after being devoured bythem, or the transmigration of the souls of thedeceased into species of game animal that mayserve the living as food in times of need.

Eschatologies not only refer to the end-times but also to the possibility of a future

regeneration, after the destruction of this world. e cosmogonies of many indigenous cul-tures throughout the world contain the seedsof regenerative hope, and therefore we shouldnot consider the movements associated withthem as the exclusive result of external pres-sures, as they many times have been, but ratheras pondered and divinely guided solutions fordilemmas and processes internal to the nativecosmogonies themselves. In all cases, proph-etsemissaries of the deitieshave acted asinterpreters of the signs of the times, foreseeingthe violent destruction as a necessary conditionfor the regeneration of the world.

Creating the World and the Day:A Baniwa Account from theNorthwest Amazon

e following selection is the rst episode ofthe creation story of the Baniwa Indians of theNorthwest Amazon region in Brazil (taped in1998, from the oldest living shaman then alive)and is followed by an interpretation of the story.

In the beginning there was only a littlestone ball calledHekwapi

Nothing else around. A vast expanse of

nothing around the little ball. ere was no land, no people, just the littleball of stone.

So the [Creator] child of the Universelooked for earth. He sent the great doveTsutsuwa to nd earth for him,


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grounded in the concept of descent, here the male line, as the central axis that generaall life. at axis, according to the traditionbecame embodied in the child of the sun de who introduced the rst rites of initiation humanity. rough the powerful sounds mad

by this being, the world opened up to its prent size. ese powerful sounds are engraved the boulders of the sacred rapids, as an everling reminder of origin.

Indigenous religious traditions, as we hseen in this chapter, focus on many of the saissues and concerns that we see in all otreligious traditions. e complementarity oppositesfor example, good and evil, dand light, shaman and sorcererhowevernot understood in the same senses as in Chrtianity or Zoroastrianism. Indigenous religiotraditions characteristically embed their mephysical questions in a language and art of sacred that is embedded in the natural, matrial world in which they live. at is, religio

the nature of the rst being. e universe wasnot like any human being but rather was morelike an illuminated intention, the great spirit whose external body shape was the sun, whichlater underwent various bodily transformationsover time. In other words, rather than imagin-

ing the creator deity as a human-like person,it is better to think of a self-generated andgenerating principle that brings into the lightof day the rst generation of living beings anddistributes them on parcels of land all over theearth, which was at that time still miniature.

ere is a deep hole located at the place,called Hipana , considered to be the center ofthe universe, the connection to the other worldthrough a spiritual pathway that only the sha-mans and dead souls can follow, the openingthrough which ancestral beings emerged fromtheir prior, virtual existence into the rst world. is opening is called the Universe Umbili-cus, the primal cord of birth, an idea that iscommonly associated with religious traditions

Fig. 1.21 Petroglyphof Capihuara, CassiquiareCanal, Venezuela.


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nevertheless holds a comforting promise that anew world will come into being if the old oneis destroyed. A cycle, therefore, is not just anendpoint but rather is the beginning of anotherlong cycle of time to come.

e prophecies in many indigenous reli-

gious traditions have served multiple functionsto warn non-indigenous societies of naturalcatastrophes due to cosmic imbalance fromthe destructiveness and greed of the youngebrother (as the Kogi Indians of the SierraNevada in Colombia call the white man); or tomaintain the importance of the ancestral tradi-tions, for without these, the enemy culture wilcome to dominate, meaning the destruction ofthe indigenous world; and nally, to critiquethe disastrous relations between the indigenouspeoples and the West, because although exog-enous societies conquered the Indians, in theend, the enemy outsiders did not defeat them.

images and metaphysical questions are inter-twined in such a way that the interpreter canunderstand these question through the sym-bolic attributes of material images. Indigenousreligious traditions are notable for the ways in which they harmonize their life cycles with the

rhythms, cycles, and forms in nature. All ofnature is imbued with the power of the sacred,the divinities who once were living, whose livesand acts are remembered and celebrated at cos-mically signicant celestial moments in time(e.g., the annual appearance of certain constel-lations) and at geographical points of intersec-tion between spirit and matter comprising amap of the world.

While many indigenous religious tradi-tions exhibit a great concern for the end of longcycles of time, with its correlated fear of thereturn of a long, dark night in which manypeople die, the world in which humans live

Fig. 1.22 Petroglyphs in South Mountain Park, Phoenix, Arizona.


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STUDY AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. In the religious tradition of the so-calledYurupar, what are some of the key symbolsand how do you think they represent key ideasof the tradition? How does native discourse

about their religious tradition compare with anoutsiders perspective on the same? Comparethe Makuna version of the Yurupar tradition(as seen in the lm) with the Arawakan versionof creation presented at the end of this text.What do they have in common? What arethe key questions each tradition focuseson? Why do you think the Yurupar traditionwas declared a nonmaterial patrimony ofhumanity?

2. Discuss the importance of the followingthemes in indigenous religious traditions:symmetry and asymmetry, complementaryopposites, reciprocity, anomalous beings,the circle and the cross, matter and spirit,conversion to Christianity, or other exogenousreligions.

3. What are some of the issues indigenouspeoples worldwide face with regard to the

continuity of their religious traditions? Howcan humanitarian agencies assist indigenouspeoples in continuing their traditions? Inwhat ways have non-indigenous societiesincorporated indigenous religious traditionsinto their religious practices? How has thisappropriation of native religiosity been seen bynative peoples themselves?

KEY TERMS

Affinal relationsAnimismApapaataiAustralian aboriginal dreamtime

Consanguineal kinCosmogonyCosmologyDogon Kanaga masksEschatology

Guarani theory of soulsInterrelationalityPerspectivismPopol VuhProphetismReligious specialistsSun danceWorld Tree of LifeYAJYurupar tradition

FOR FURTHER READING

Carrasco, David.Religions of Mesoamerica:Cosmovision and Ceremonial Centers . ProspectHeights, IL: Waveland, 1998.

Conklin, Beth.Consuming Grief. Austin: University ofTexas, 2002.

DeLoria, Vine, Jr.The World We Used to Live In.Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 2006.

Olupona, Jacob, ed.Beyond Primitivism. New York:Routledge, 2007.

Pentikinen, Juha, and Mihly Hoppl, eds.NorthernReligions and Shamanism . Ethnologica uralica 3.Budapest: Akadmiai Kiad, 1992.

Robbins, Joel.Becoming Sinners: Christianity andMoral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

Rosaldo, Renato.Ilongot Headhunting . A Studyin Society and History 18831974. Stanford:Stanford University Press, 1980.

Sullivan, L. E.Icanchus Drum: An Orientation toMeaning in South American Religions. New York:Macmillan, 1988.


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Indigenous Religious Traditions of the World

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